First Macro Shots, critique and help

no_steeze

no_steeze

Active member
i got some kenko extension tubes in the mail today and i went out and tried to get a few macro shots. i combined the 36mm tube with a canon 50mm f/1.8 and i found that focusing was a bitch and a half. first off the autofocus was being bitchy so i went to manual which was harder to keep the camera stable. i found that any slight movement would put the shot totally out of focus. so i cranked up the ISO so i could get fast shutter speeds so i could kinda rock back and forth slightly until the shot was in focus and i could snap the shot. so i'm looking for tips and advice on how to get in focus shots with extenders and such, i know a tripod would help but that limits shots that get inside flowers and stuff
im posting links because embedding them sucks
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3552/3672701137_57b3e54bb5_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3602/3672706445_6550d4d5c8_b.jpg

thanks
 
sounds to me like you should be using a tripod! that way you don't have to rock back and forth and such. also you should close the aperture down some more so you can get a solid depth of field and keep your subject's in focus all the way from front to back. just my suggestions.

shots look really great though!
 
nice shots but def need a little bit bigger depth of field,

what camera and lense are you using?
 
40D with 50mm f/1.8 and 36mm kenko extender
the shots i took with closed aperture turned out blurry because it was windy and the light was bad, i didn't wanna crank up the iso too high so i just went with lower aperturei'll take that into account when i try some more tomorrow, hopefully it'll be bright outside
 
Nice work. I got tubes like 6 months ago but just haven't found time to play around with them much. You really need to stop down to f11 or 16 to get a workable depth of field, then blast it with flash or up your ISO. Mounting your lens backwards with or without tubes lets your focus really close too but you need to get right in close so there's not much room to work with. For all methods you're kind of best focusing at infinity, locking your camera on a tripod then having your object on a sheet of paper or something you can slide forward/back to focus.

New photo comp thread will be related to this in a way, so get shooting people!
 
word narrower aperture is definitely next on the list haha, i'm so used to shooting flowers non macro and i always used a wide aperture for that so i assumed it transferredit was hard to tell on my viewfinder, definitely gonna get a good depth of field on the next onesthanks for the tips
 
Yeah just experiment with it. With that tube + lens you probably still only have about half an inch depth of field at f11. Start there then adjust up or down.
 
sometimes when you put up the iso all the way it will look better than putting it up part way, this is because only some pixels are affected by putting the iso up just some but if you put up your iso all the way there is a more even texture instead of scattered change in the pixel sensitivity.

but still dont want to put up your iso that much especially for macro
 
i tried a bit with more depth of field, it was raining so i couldn't shoot outside
click
3677162644_b30c981515_b.jpg
 
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